Parents paid FIITJEE coaching fees from life insurance payouts, loans; they demand refunds

NEW DELHI : Siddhant Sharma*, 16, from Bokaro, Jharkhand, moved to Ranchi just after his father’s demise in 2024 for a better school and FIITJEE’s coaching centre. He paid Rs 1.47 lakh in three installments for a two-year course to prepare him for the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE Main and JEE Advanced) for admission to premier engineering colleges.

The money had come from his father’s life insurance payout. Then, less than a year into his course, the FIITJEE Ranchi suddenly closed shop. The Forum of Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (FIIT-JEE) is headquartered in Delhi, its offices conveniently located about 2 km from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Starting from late 2024 and in January, many of its JEE coaching centres, including ones in Mumbai, Noida, Ghaziabad , Patna, Ranchi and Bhopal, have suddenly shut down, leaving hundreds of students and parents facing both financial and educational setbacks during crucial examination periods.

“We sacrificed so much to move to the city for coaching. We paid the FIITJEE fees from his father’s insurance policy. And now it has closed down and we are shocked,” said Sidhant’s mother. “As a widow, arranging the fee was enormously challenging. If a reputed organisation like FIITJEE can abandon its students, where will the child go? We have no money to take admission in a new coaching now.”

Similarly, a family in Patna took a personal loan of Rs 2.5 lakh for admission of their children in FIIT-JEE Patna centre. “We paid Rs 3 lakh for both our boy and girl for admission in a two-year course through a personal loan of Rs 2.5 lakh from a bank in Patna and now we have to pay the loan. But our children are neither getting any classes nor are the modules available online because all the access to courses online has been removed. It's devastating for us now!” said the parent.

FIITJEE closed

The crisis emerged after teachers resigned en-masse from multiple FIITJEE centres due to months of unpaid salaries.

A teacher from a Patna centre anonymously said: “The situation deteriorated on December 15 when our centre closed abruptly. Even the police were present at the premises. Many teachers, including myself, submitted resignation letters citing salary issues. We haven't received any response from the institute to date. The teachers weren't paid for three months and everyone resigned.”

Another student from FIIT-JEE Ranchi told Careers360 : "Suddenly on January 25, after we had done the entire week’s class, we were informed that a pre-planned test was cancelled. Later that evening, we received another message from FIIT-JEE that the managing partner of the centre had run away with all the money, deserting the centre.”

Different First Information Reports (FIRs) have been filed against the organisation. In Noida, an FIR has been registered with founder DK Goyal and other executive members named as accused. On January 27, another FIR was filed in Patna by a few parents. The centre in Bhopal has reportedly been sealed.

Careers360 spoke with students from Patna and Ranchi, which has two centres in each city, with around 800-1000 students, respectively. This also comes amidst the JEE Mains 2025 Session 1 examination , held from January 22 to January 30.

The institute claimed that the Delhi/NCR centre shut down due to “ mismanagement and desertion ” by managing partners of centres and that it plans to pursue legal action for alleged poaching of its faculty. A similar message was also sent to all the parents and students in Ranchi and Patna centres.

IIT JEE Coaching: ‘All our money is gone’

A parent whose two children were enrolled in FIITJEE’s Patna centre complained that all the payments were taken in advance, through post-dated cheques.

“My son studying in Class 6 was also admitted for the April 2025 batch and the advance payment was taken in December. This was the first batch of Class 6 and 30 more parents, along with us, had done advance payments. And now all our money is gone,” he said.

Another parent added: “We paid 100% fees for two years for Classes 6 and 7 beforehand on trust that our children’s education will be taken care of. And now we have to find new coaching.”

A student enrolled in a four-year course in FIITJEE Patna stated that his father had already paid Rs 1.5 lakh out of the total fee of Rs 2.5 lakh total fee. He said: “I took admission in December 2023 for a four-year course and now our money and time is wasted and now we have to look for a new coaching in the middle of a session.”

That is also proving to be difficult.

Parents are concerned that other coaching institutes are charging exorbitant fees. A parent who has already spent “all savings” on FIIT JEE Ranchi stated that a competing coaching centre is asking for Rs 1.50 lakh for a one-to-two-year course. “It's very expensive for us,” they said.

Another explained: “For my ward, I gave from my savings and all the fees had been taken a year before the class started. And now for a new admission, institutes are asking for a registration fee of Rs 40,000. Where will we get this money from? For parents, it's very difficult, especially for salaried employees, as March is where income tax deduction happens for the whole year.”

There are other expenses as the new session of school will start in April. “The new school session, bus fees and other school expenses are at our door and this extra expenditure is causing extreme difficulty,” he added.

Another parent said they are demanding that the fees at least be refunded and that they are considering filing an FIR too.

The major issue is with parents and children who have travelled from other cities just to prepare for the JEE through FIIT JEE. A student from Ranchi added, “This time is especially hard for students who came to Ranchi especially to study at FIIT JEE and whose parents are not in good financial condition.”

A parent from Patna said: “We skipped meals and reduced overall family expenditure just to ensure our child gets the right education and gets admission in FIITJEE.”

FIITJEE coaching centres losing teachers

There were signs of trouble even months before the closures.

A student from FIITJEE Ranchi, enrolled in a two-year course for Classes 11 and 12, stated that almost immediately after he joined in April 2024, their maths and chemistry teachers resigned, impacting their studies.

“This led to a lag in the syllabus completion. Other teachers who joined did not teach well. Classes were held haphazardly throughout the year and very few classes were meaningful.… Most of the courses across the centres in the city faced this,” he explained.

When students complained to the administration, they were initially told the teachers were on leave; later, they discovered through the grapevine that they had left and joined other coaching centres.

Concerned about these rumblings, Sharma’s mother had asked the Ranchi centre administration about teachers' availability at the time of his admission in April, last year.

“The lack of teachers across FIITJEE’s centres has been reported in the news since last year. But we were assured that this is just a general practice where new teachers are hired to enhance the quality of studies,” she stated.

For teachers, the situation had been precarious for months before they started leaving in droves. “All teachers have been anxious and our lives have been paralyzed for the past six months because a teacher is dependent on salary and without it, it is impossible to perform in the class. Day by day things were getting worse due to the salary issue,” said a teacher from the Patna centre.

He stated that during every India-wide meeting, the chairman (Goyal) told teachers the institute was facing financial issues and promised that in October, everything would get normalised. But no salary came.

“During July, August and September, partial salaries up to 60%-50%, were disbursed. And later in October, November and December no salaries were given. In December when no salary was received, teachers realised that the situation would not get better. Many teachers left many months ago and the rest left when three months' salary was not paid. Even during the last meeting for the Patna FIITJEE centre, teachers were willing to continue if they got 50% of the salary for one month. But no salary came for December either. That’s when teachers resigned,” he said.

Most teachers have now moved to other coaching centres, including Aakash, Physicswallah, and others. Students have received messages informing them of the move.

“I have got a job because teachers are needed by other coaching institutes,” said a teacher. “But how can the institute leave their students and teachers amidst the JEE Main exams ?”

*Name changed on request.